Actually, the explanation is even simpler than that. The NYT simply lied about what she had to say in this interview. She said the opposite of what they imply. See her Facebook page:
I'm shocked! Well not really, most of what the NYT has to say is untrue.
That’s so disturbing that the Times would twist her take on Trump so outrageously. I was surprised by the article because I had seen a fairly recent interview of her before talking fondly of him (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzQM-XJsa1o).
This clip also contains a short segment of an old interview from right after they broke up, in which she said: “Donald Trump would have no problem getting women if he didnt have a penny, because hes got one of the best personalities of anybody Ive ever met.” They seem to have broken up entirely amiably, which makes the NY Times article all that much more of a hit piece. One wonders what other distortions the article contains.
(Interestingly enough in the interview, she recalled that in the early 1990s, he once asked her: “Do you think I would make a good president?”)